Jet Airways, India’s premier international airline, and the European turboprop aircraft manufacturer ATR today announced the signature of a new Global Maintenance Agreement (GMA), valued at some US $ 48 million. This new GMA extends the agreement for the following 7 years and covers the supply of spare parts and maintenance services for the fleet of ATRs of the airline.

Jet Airways, including its subsidiary Jet Konnect, currently operates a fleet of 16 ATR 72-500 and 1 ATR 72-600 aircraft, and will introduce an additional 4 new ATR 72-600 aircraft into its fleet. The airline has been operating ATR aircraft since 1999 and has covered its fleet with GMAs since the beginning of its partnership with ATR. Jet Airways has become the first operator in India of the new ATR -600 series aircraft, which feature the most advanced cabin interior designs, as well as the most updated avionics suite and navigation aid tools.

This new Global Maintenance Agreement will handle the complete management of the components, including the repair of line replaceable units (LRUs) and propellers, and the access to an ATR advance standard exchange pool. The service package includes also an inventory of spare parts at Jet Airways premises. With the signature of this agreement, Jet Airways will mainly take advantage of guaranteed spares availability and a large reduction of maintenance costs. The airline will additionally benefit from simplified maintenance procedures, with ATR as single channel.

According to Mr. Nikos Kardassis, CEO, Jet Airways, “Jet Airways is delighted to partner with ATR in a new Global Maintenance Agreement. ATR services are an integral part of Jet Airways’ domestic operations, enabling the airline to enhance network connectivity to include several smaller Indian destinations. The new agreement will streamline and ease maintenance requirements, as well as access to aircraft spare parts across Jet Airways’ ATR fleet, in a cost efficient manner.”

Commenting on the deal, Lilian Braylé, Senior Vice-President Product Support & Services of ATR, declared: “We are pleased to further extend our long-term partnership with a worldwide-reputed carrier which has been successfully operating ATR for many years. This GMA eases the maintenance tasks at Jet Airways, which will benefit from the experience and knowledge of the ATR Customer Support on their day-to-day operations”.

About the GMA

The Global Maintenance Agreement (GMA) represents the extensive and flexible maintenance services package ATR offers to the Operators in order to assist them during aircraft operations and reduce maintenance costs. As an aircraft manufacturer ATR has built a unique expertise offering the Customer the most cost efficient solutions to outsource their "on" and "off" aircraft maintenance requirements.

About Jet Airways:

Jet Airways currently operates a fleet of 99 aircraft, which include 10 Boeing 777-300 ER aircraft, 11 Airbus A330-200 aircraft, 2 Airbus A330-300 aircraft 59 next generation Boeing 737-700/800/900 aircraft, 16 ATR 72-500 and 1 ATR 72-600 turboprop aircraft. With an average fleet age of 5.66 years, the airline has one of the youngest fleet of aircraft in the world. Flights to 73 destinations span the length and breadth of India and beyond, including Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Bangkok, Brussels, Colombo, Dammam, Dhaka, Doha, Dubai, Hong Kong, Jeddah, Kathmandu, Kuwait, London (Heathrow), Milan, Muscat, New York (Newark), Riyadh, Sharjah, Singapore and Toronto.

About ATR:

Founded in 1981, ATR has become the world leader on the market for regional aircraft with 90 seats or less. Since its creation, ATR has sold approximately 1,200 aircraft to over 180 operators based in 91 countries. ATR planes have totalled over 21 million flight hours. ATR is an equal partnership between two major European aeronautics players, Alenia Aermacchi (a Finmeccanica Group company) and EADS. Its head office is in Toulouse. In 2006 it established the ATR India Customer Support in Bangalore, India, dedicated regional centre to support the ATRs flying in South Asia. ATR is ISO 14001 certified. This is the international reference standard in the field for environmental friendliness.